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Thursday, June 14, 2012

I haven't posted about our super ugly kitchen in quite awhile. In case you were wondering, it's still super ugly.

Wah wah wah.

But, I have been making a few small changes here and there to make it more functional and slightly less crusty (if that's even possible).

First, I painted the walls and trim. I used leftover paint from the rest of the main floor (Gray Own 1/2 Tint and Simply White - Benjamin Moore). This made a HUGE difference and I cursed myself for waiting so long to do it.

Painted walls and trim.

Next, Alex and I moved the fridge over and installed some open shelving for display and storage on the wall with no cabinetry. Hello, Ikea.

Open shelving on empty wall.

We also replaced the fluorescent light over the sink with a pendant light.

Pendant light over sink.

Underneath the Ikea shelving we decided to create a bit more counter space and storage by doubling up two Ikea kitchen carts. We already had one in the kitchen already, so we picked up a second one and placed them side by side underneath the open shelves. Like so:

Ikea kitchen carts for counter space and storage.

The extra counter space has made such a huge difference so far. Now we have a place to put the mail down, open up a cookbook, or to cool a pan of muffins. {I love muffins. I should make some muffins right now. Muffins, muffins, muffins.}

I love you counter space!

For a few months we had a mishmash of decorative bowls 'n things on the lower shelves. However yesterday I decided to try and make the space more functional.

On one kitchen cart I've got a basket, a large bowl, and some glass canisters:

Kitchen cart #1

I use the basket as a bread basket. It's usually crammed full of bagels, English muffins, sandwich bread, and french stick. What can I say, I'm a carbaholic. The large white bowl is usually filled to overflowing with fresh fruit - usually apples, oranges, grapefruit, and bananas. If you're wondering why both are empty it's 'cause the bananas were kinda brown and we only had two grapefruits left. I left them out of the picture. Yes, grocery shopping is on my mile-high list of things to do today. Or tomorrow. Or the next day.

On the bottom shelf are four glass canisters that I use for common baking ingredients. Those chocolate chips are looking pretty hurtsville now that I look at them. Add some of those to my grocery list.

On the second kitchen cart I've got two magazine files, a charging station, and a stack of serving trays:

I just added the filing baskets in an attempt to organize our incoming and outgoing mail. There is also a charging station for my iphone, Alex's blackberry, and our ipods.

I stacked some serving trays on the bottom shelf since we've been using them lots and lots over the last few weekends. We've been entertaining visitors out on the deck and the trays are super handy for snacks and drinks.

In case you're curious, here is where we found the goods:

Kitchen Carts - Ikea

Basket - Homesense

Bowl - Hilltop Interiors

Glass Canisters - Wal-Mart

Stick-On Letters - Michael's

Charging Station - Pottery Barn

Magazine Files - Homesense

Trays - Homesense & Superstore

Glass Rolling Pin - Antique Store

Even though the two kitchen carts were kinda pricey and added up to about $500 for both, we plan on reusing them in our future laundry room for clothes-folding counter space and storage. Not a bad deal at all.

So, that's our latest kitchen quick-fix. Now it's time for me to not go to the grocery store ooooh and ahhhhhh over pretty kitchens on Pinterest. One day.... one day.................

P.S. Can anyone tell me why the spacing in Blogger is being so weird lately?!?!?!

What's a french stick? Is that like french bread?! Ha, ha, you do like muffins. I would say that as a casual reader I've definitely noticed that about you;)

The kitchen is looking awesome! That was a pretty great idea to get another cart and put them together, it certainly looks way more functional and cute. Love all the natural baskets together with the white! Just laughing at the day that Cooper starts crawling and getting into things! You've got about 5 months left of those shelves looking pretty:)

Ps. Sorry, I didn't want you to think that having a baby/kid changes everything about your home decor (do not panic!!!). You can definitely still keep that adult space feeling and have their things around:)

Girl... I don't know what you mean when you say your kitchen is ugly!! I LOVE your kitchen... it's cozy, cottagey, cute!!! Love the Ikea carts, must be such a huge change to have all that extra counter space!

Looks fantastic! It also reminds me a lot of mine - I have a retro style kitchen like this and have added grey walls and painted the cupboards white. Such a change but I still see a huge list of things to do when I look at it! Love your changes so far though xx

You have such amazing ideas! Your kitchen looks phenomenal!! Are you planning to leave these bad boys where they are permanently ? Wouldn't the wheels on the bottom of the cart bother you? Where did you buy those glass containers? I want to buy a lot of them for myself for baking purposes as well! Also, can you show us how you installed the light under the sink?

I'm sitting here in my office reading blogs (bad Jess, I know... but the bosses are out of town today) and my cube-mate, a gentleman I may add, looks over and literally ooh-ed and ahh-ed over these pictures.

Hun, this kitchen is not even close to ugly trust me! I actually love how this turned out with the 2 kitchen carts side by side. I love how there is so much extra storage provided, was wondering, where was the white serving tray from?

Thanks so much for leaving a comment to say that you like my little blog. It means a lot. I'm glad I'm not the only one that gets sucked into new blogs for hours and hours at a time. It's an illness, I swear! ;)

Love your blog....I have a kitchen similar to yours. We painted the bottom cabinets cherry red, uppers white. Ikea drop down table on a wall next to the stove. Although I drool over open,large kitchens, I love mine. Maybe sometime down the line we can knock out a wall....maybe.